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The word spread quickly: free flowers on High Street. Folks arrived in a frenzy to scoop up the
blooms at the Darby Creek Nursery’s temporary location in Worthington.

They grabbed petunias and geraniums and roses, loading their cars with hanging baskets and flats
of flowers. They called their friends. They took nearly everything.

They probably didn’t realize they were robbing the place blind.

“I can’t even fathom how somebody would assume it’s free,” said Jeff Turnbull, owner of the
Hilliard-based nursery. “We’re a small business trying to make it in a bad economy.”

Turnbull found out about Monday night’s floral free-for-all when employees showed up on Tuesday
to take down the pop-up shop. Nearly $5,000 worth of plants were gone. They discovered a note from
one dubious gardener who said he had taken flowers with the understanding that they were free. He
left his name and number, just in case.

Later that day, another unwitting thief showed up at the Hilliard nursery and said she had
wondered about her haul, too.

“Yeah, but it didn’t stop ’em,” Turnbull said yesterday.

Word was that a mystery woman announced that all the remaining flowers were free, and that bit
of misinformation tumbled through Worthington’s begonia-loving ranks. Three people have since paid
Turnbull for their mistake. One warned others Wednesday morning on Craigslist:
Anyone who stopped by the Darby Creek Nursery temporary location in Worthington ... if you were
told the remaining flowers were being given away free, they were not.

Turnbull said the hit was a big one to his company, and he has recouped only a tiny fraction of
what was taken. He’s still dumbfounded. Darby Creek has been in business for 20 years, and it has
opened seasonal stores like the one in Worthington for five years with no problems.

“I have no idea,” he said, more than once. “I don’t ... I just ... I still can’t believe it
happened.”